


Grilling

by Traxits



Series: The Coast of the Sun [2]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Fluff, Multi, OT6, Rude-centric, Vacation, grilling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-07-22 05:43:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7422136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Traxits/pseuds/Traxits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reeve decides that all of them need to barbecue. Rude shows him what barbecues look like in Costa del Sol.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grilling

**Author's Note:**

> Set during a weird time frame that doesn’t actually exist? As in, where Elena is a Turk but the plot of FF7 hasn’t happened. Because fanfiction and I can. Oh, and general cigarette and alcohol use. Because Turks and 90s fandoms.

Finding the kitchen in the villa hadn’t been easy. The place was huge, and it wasn’t as though there were signs. Still, once Rude found the front door, he felt like he at least had learned half of the house. He glanced at the art on the walls in the front room; each was worth twice his annual salary, and he realized after a second that he’d seen them all.

They were the original paintings of the prints that hung along the walls on the 69th floor. One corner of Rude’s mouth lifted slightly, and then he turned his head, sniffing faintly.

Coffee.

Blessed coffee.

He followed the scent into the kitchen, and he frowned as Reno waved a spatula over his shoulder. He didn’t turn around, but Rude wasn’t surprised. Reno’s awareness of people around him bordered on creepy.

“Coffee, yo,” he called, and Rude nodded.

He could see the Mideel press on the counter. There were even mugs already lined up. Reno had a mug over by the stove, and Rude, curiosity getting the better of him, stepped in close to look over his shoulder. Reno tilted his head, giving Rude the room to do it, and Rude frowned a little more.

Reno was cooking pancakes. There was a neat stack of them on the plate on the other side of him, and clearly, he’d been at it for a while. Or someone had, and Reno had taken over for them.

“Not my idea,” Reno said after a minute, confirming Rude’s suspicion, and Rude raised an eyebrow as he lowered his head enough to sit on Reno’s shoulder. Reno was one of the few people tall enough that the position wasn’t uncomfortable. Reno offered him the spatula, but Rude knew better than to take it. He wrapped his arms around Reno’s waist instead.

Reno huffed, rolled his eyes, and looked back down at the pancake in the skillet. He jabbed the edge of it roughly, and Rude turned his face in against Reno’s neck to hide his smile.

“Still learning?” he murmured against the skin there, and Reno elbowed him in the gut.

“Fuck you, dipshit. Flipped more pancakes this mornin’ than I ever thought ‘zisted, yeah? Go fix coffee, yo.” The jerk of Reno’s chin toward his mug told Rude that he wanted another cup too. Rude leaned against him a little more heavily, just enjoying the feel of having him close.

Even when Reno slept with him, he was always gone long before Rude woke up. This, with Reno stuck holding the spatula, was as close to cuddling as they got.

Reno let him linger for a minute more, and then he elbowed Rude harder, and Rude sighed. 

He pulled away, and he grabbed Reno’s cup as he went back to the press.

He poured his own coffee first, then spooned sugar into Reno’s mug and topped it off. His eyes narrowed at the small container of milk sitting out, and he splashed just a touch into Reno’s coffee.

“Where’s Reeve?” he asked before he sipped his coffee, and Reno held out his hand for his mug.

“Somewhere. Said somethin’ 'bout grillin’ lunch or whatever. Then stuck this in my hand an’ headed that way.” Reno punctuated the words with a nod toward one of the other doors.

Rude studied it, leaned over to grab one of Reno’s finished pancakes, and murmured, “You’re burning that one,” before he headed out.

Reno’s muttered swearing followed him.

Rude rolled the pancake to make it easier to eat as he wandered, and eventually, he found Reeve in the courtyard, standing over a grill, hands on his hips. He was surveying the supplies stacked up around it, and Rude raised an eyebrow as he studied it all. Charcoal, a chimney to light it with, and yet…

“What’re we grilling?” he asked, and Reeve jumped before he laughed and turned to look up at Rude.

He reached up, scratching at his forehead faintly as he shook his head. "I honestly have no idea. Elena’s supposed to be finding something. I was just… trying to decide if it was too early to start lighting everything or not.“

Rude sipped his coffee, and he shrugged.

"No chairs?”

Reeve waved a hand. "There are chairs on the arbor over there. I thought we could just drag them over.“

"Mm.” Rude nodded slowly, glancing back toward where Reeve had motioned, then he looked at Reeve again, studying him. He held out the coffee cup, and Reeve took and sipped from it before he realized what he was doing.

Rude reached down and checked the bags of charcoal, and content that none of them were open, he stood back up and gently dislodged his cup from Reeve’s hand.

“What’s the charcoal for?”

Reeve blinked up at him, wide eyes, and he sputtered before he shook his head. "For the grill. I mean, what else… how do you barbecue?“

Rude glanced over the tops of his shades at Reeve, and Reeve held his gaze for a moment before he jerked his attention back to the grill.

”… Not with charcoal, eh?“ he finally said, reaching up to wrap his hand around the back of his neck.

Rude shook his head, and he took half a step back. "C'mon. Breakfast. Then we’ll dig.”

“Dig?”

But Rude didn’t offer him an explanation as he guided Reeve back into the house.

Reno wasn’t happy about the fact that Rude didn’t let Reeve take over finishing breakfast (c'mon, yo, you can’t leave me here like this), but he dealt. Rude made sure Reeve had a plate to work through– they’d apparently already cooked bacon and eggs and who knew what else before they started in on the pancakes.

Then he went to find Elena. He walked in on her half inside a deep freezer, and he studied her for a long moment, watching the way she had balanced herself entirely on her core.

She was short enough that in order to reach in the bottom of the freezer, her feet had to come off the ground. Rude watched her balance for several moments, just admiring.

“And everyone thinks Reno is the creeper,” Elena said as she finally slid back upright, and Rude snorted. "C'mon then, you’ve got longer arms than me. Is that a whole pig in there?“

Rude shook his head before he glanced over her to see. Then he nodded. "Nah. Just shoulders. … It’d need to thaw.”

“Probably, yeah. But if that’s in here, I wonder…” Elena turned on one heel, and she grabbed Rude’s hand to tug him along.

There was a pantry the size of some bedrooms Rude had stood in over the years, and he wondered just what army the Shinras had ever expected to house here. Then he glanced back down at Elena, remembered everyone else they would be feeding, and smiled faintly.

“Rufus must have groceries delivered here,” Elena said as she glanced around. She let Rude go and pointed to one of the lockers in the back. "And I’m thinking they stocked up right before we got here. This stuff is all really fresh.“

She wasn’t kidding.

Eventually, they found a whole pig, ready to go, and Rude decided that if they were going to do this, they were going to do this right. That meant some organization.

Eventually, that also meant getting down on the beach proper, and that meant digging a pit, and that meant sending Reno into the treeline to find the leaves and stalks and everything else that Rude remembered using. Not that he’d cooked this way in a long time. Longer than he ever wanted to admit to.

Reeve sputtered and protested, and eventually, Reno found him a chair, pulled him down in it, and Elena brought him a drink.

Something strong, if the face he made when he sipped from it was any indication. Rude exchanged looks with Elena, who only grinned, and he shook his head as he went back to digging.

They’d gotten the pig ready and in the pit by the time Tseng and Rufus found them, and Rude took one look at them then snorted. Tseng met his gaze, lifted his chin, and dared Rude to say something.

"Yo, Boss, lookin’ good. That th’ Chief’s shirt?”

One corner of Rude’s lips quirked. He didn’t have to say anything when Reno was in the room, and they all knew it. Tseng rolled his eyes, ignored Reno, and set to work, helping Reno find enough firewood to start something on the beach. Rufus dropped down onto the sand beside Reeve’s chair, and after a minute, he reached up to take what was left of Reeve’s drink.

Reeve, after all, was too busy napping in the sun to consider finishing it.

Rude glanced up at the sun, and for a moment, he was struck with just how good this moment really was. Rufus sitting in the sand by a sleeping Reeve, sipping some bright orange drink, Tseng and Reno working on getting a fire going, and Elena…

He twisted around to find her, and he sighed as he watched her drag Reeve’s grill onto the sand. He helped her get it settled, and then he looked at her. She grinned up at him.

“I thought we’d grill vegetables when Reeve wakes up. I want zucchini. And flatbread. I don’t think that’s very Costan, but then again, not all of us are, yeah?”

Rude looked down at the grill, and he smiled at the thought. The reminder.

They were family, but they weren’t blood. His traditions weren’t necessarily theirs.

“Yeah,” he said lowly. "… Won’t hold it against you.“

Elena’s fist slammed into his upper arm as she laughed.

"Good,” she retorted. "C'mon. Charcoal next.“


End file.
